Valentine's Day
by MakoRain
Summary: This is the one chance Zack has to fall apart for the woman he loves.


A/N: I originally posted this fic for valentine's day last year I believe but have decided to have it split from the My Soundtrack series so here it is once again. I have made up parts of this story and it does not reflect the timeline for any of the FFVII games or the movie. Sorry if it gets confusing, ask any questions you'd like. Thanks to all that read and review, you keep me going where the words are flowing ^_^

"**Valentine's Day" **

**by MakoRain**

It was exactly one year from the day he met her. If only he would have been able to know her longer and a little better. This day used to give him so much hope, a promise of one day finding the love of another that would last forever. Her love was still with him but in a different way. There was no way for one to keep the love of another who is no longer of the living.

Zack Fair walked among the blooming apple trees, pink blossoms floating on the wind that pulled at his raven spikes. His eyes were filled with the light of a spring day and yet his heart did not hold the joy it once held before. It had been a long year and for being such a happy person, Zack didn't feel like that same man anymore.

Much had been lost. He no longer worked for ShinRa, SOLDIER or any of that. Not since his idle, Sephiroth, had been corrupted and turned on his own men, killing hundreds of innocent people.

One such person came into view as if to stand in front of him beside her marker. Ruby eyes shown under a hat that hid her hair until you looked past her shoulders and saw the mahogany tresses still flowing down her back down to her legs and all he could do was smile. Tifa Lockheart had guided him and his fellow SOLDIERs through the mountains by her hometown of Nibelheim. She was such a lovely girl and her smile would never shine again, being struck down by Sephiroth at the beginning of his insane campaign.

Little did Zack know that his scout on the trip was in love with this girl. Cloud Strife stood solemnly next to his stone, head downturn and face uncertain. Cloud had tried to save Tifa in the calamity as Nibelheim went up in flames but arrived a moment too later, her broken body stabbed clean through by Sephiroth's blade and tossed aside like yesterday's trash. Zack had tried to reach her first, to try and stop her from taking on the mad man that was once his closest friend and idol but she fool heartedly attacked, stricken with grief at the loss of her father to such a monster.

At least Cloud had been able to speak with her before she passed, confirming that he had kept his promise to always be there and she was glad with her last breath that he had came for her; he always had. Cloud had stormed the reactor with a look of vengeance and didn't stand a chance as Zack was thrown aside, Cloud soon to follow. All that Zack was thankful for was that it had been quick, Sephiroth's sword piercing clean through the body of his friend.

Wings filled his past as his mentor stood looking up at the sky before focusing on Zack, the white wing like a burden weighing down his back. Angeal had never liked his wing, Zack recalled how he admitted feeling like a monster but he was the furthest thing from one and he told him it was the wing of an angel. Sephiroth and Angeal had trust issues and they were pushed to the max when Angeal did not go on the retrieval mission for Genesis, putting him in the light of a traitor. Zack could never believe the man who gave him his buster sword and trained him how to use it could turn his back on ShinRa and Sephiroth looked down upon him for his faith in a possible traitor to the SOLDIER cause. In all boiled down to a battle that rendered Zack useless as Sephiroth drove his sword through Angeal's body, leaving him lifeless and white feathers blew in the wind as if to say goodbye. It was one of many times Zack would find himself unable to do anything in Sephiroth's wake.

Then he had to do what he had known was a possibility when Sephiroth had started to lose it. His commanding officer looked him dead in the eye, mako hardening his stare while his black wing draped comfortably over his headstone. After killing Tifa and Cloud, there was no way Zack could even try talking sense into the deranged SOLDIER. He was the best of the best and Zack was his second. How the mighty had fallen, and Zack made sure he would harm no other creature as he lifted his buster sword and split his idol in two, making sure there was no chance of him coming back. One black wing protruded from the fallen man's shoulder and the feathers still stuck in his mind, splattered with the owner's blood. God, there had been so much blood.

Wings filled his past as his mentor stood looking up at the sky before focusing on Zack, his wings like two burdens weighing down his back. Angeal had never like his wings, Zack recalled. Sephiroth and Angeal had trust issues and they were pushed to the max when Angeal did not go on the retrieval mission for Genesis, putting him in the light of a traitor. Zack could never believe the man who gave him his buster sword and trained him how to use it could turn his back on ShinRa and Sephiroth looked down upon him for his faith in a possible traitor to the SOLDIER cause. In all boiled down to a battle that rendered Zack useless as Sephiroth drove his sword through Angeal's body, leaving him lifeless and white feathers blew in the wind as if to say goodbye. It was one of many times Zack would find himself unable to do anything in Sephiroth's wake.

It was all so fast. Tifa was dead. Cloud was dead. Sephiroth was dead at Zack's own hand. But the reason he was there today was not to be lost in grief over the past, but to celebrate the life of the woman he had loved more than he ever thought possible.

In the months that he had known her, Aerith Gainsborough was the sweetest, most passionate girl he had ever met. As a flower maiden she grew the happiest flowers and as a person she had the power to brighten the darkest spot in life. He recalled how they met with a smile, him falling through her church roof and startling her. She had started out his friend, confidante, and blossomed into something more. She was the only woman aside from his mother that he had cried in front of.

And yet he couldn't stop ShinRa from taking her to Hojo where the sadistic bastard tried to crossbreed her cetra energy with Jenova cells within her body. The energies fought for control and it was just too much for her human vessel, which split in two from the forces battling killing her in the process. He was not allowed to see what exactly had happened to her, not after Tseng had heard of Zack's close connections to the flower maiden, even if he had led the expedition to have her captured. Tseng thought he was sparing Zack from the pain and misery but all he did was fuel on the young SOLDIER first class desire to be rid of the power hungry company. The day she died was the day he left it all behind.

It was as if she was there, her pink dress rustling in the breeze while she knelt by the flowers he had placed on her grave. White and yellow lilies, just like those she had grown in her church. Slow motion seemed to take over as every movement of her body, standing to turn and look at him amplified as her emerald eyes held his and her smile broadened at the sight of him as it had so many times before in life. He knew she wasn't there but he would have given anything to speak with her, hold her, touch her one last time. Without thought he stretched out his hand, wanting to brush some of her auburn hair from her face but the action broke the spell and her form dispersed with the wind. He pulled his hand away, letting it fall to his side and turned to face the warm sun, heating his chilled body.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

There was so much sorrow in today. Such death and sadness he had wanted to forget but he couldn't, not when today was also the happiest day of his life. Zack had many trials in life but one he would never regret was loving Aerith. It had been the simplest thing in the world, to give her his heart. In a way she still had it, even though he knew she would want him to move on and in that look, that soft smile, it felt as if a part of him had returned long gone. He felt his heart beating loudly and laughed. She had given that piece back, the one he had missed the most. So with a full and lightened heart, Zack Fair waved to his friends of the past and turned to walk into his future. He didn't know what lay ahead but that was part of the adventure and he would pull ahead, he always did.

The End

_As it was meant to be._


End file.
